Why are the world's scientists worried about the blazing fire in the Himalayas?

Posted on 12th Apr 2021 by rohit kumar

The lush green mountains behind the Naini Lake of Nainital make this city of Uttarakhand more beautiful. But for the past few days, the smoke rising from the forest fire has hidden the mountains and now the beauty of the lake is not the same as before.

 

Professor Shekhar Pathak, an expert on the history of forests in the region, says, "From the side of the lake I live, you can smell the smell of this smoke."

 

He says, "Not only are the cedar trees that catch fire very quickly, but are also burning oak (Shah Baloot) trees, which means that the situation is very serious."

 

People living in the area most affected by the forest fire have told the BBC that they are not able to sleep at night.

 

"We wake up in the middle of the night and go into the surrounding forest to see if the fire is going to reach our homes," says Kedar Avni, a resident of Banna village in Pithoragarh district.

 

Pithoragarh is the easternmost district of the mountainous province of Uttarakhand.

 

Kedar says, "The fire has burnt our fodder and the grass kept for the animals. Now we are afraid that our houses may get burnt."

 

They say that the fire is so strong that it starts burning from twenty meters away.

 

"We have no way to extinguish this fire."

 

Wildfire record case

Scientists say that the forest fire in some areas of North India and Nepal is the most fierce in the last fifteen years.

 

According to the European Union's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS), a fire in the forests of Uttarakhand in the last month has generated 0.2 megatonnes of carbon emissions. This is the highest since 2003.

 

The agency analyzed the photos taken from the satellite and said that during the same period, Nepal has emitted 18 megatonnes of carbon. This is the highest since 2016. There were 27 megatonne emissions that year.

 

CAMS top scientist Mark Parrington says, "It tells us how fast the fire is spreading in the area. It's a matter of concern."

 

So far twenty people have been reported dead due to forest fires in Nepal and Uttarakhand. It is believed that millions of hectares of forest have been burnt to ashes. Although the official data has not been released.

 

In the past month, there was a fire in the forests of more than five hundred places in Nepal. Nepal's air level has been dangerous for the past several days.

 

Many of Nepal's national parks and forests meet India's parks and forests, which means that fire can spread from Nepal to India and from India to Nepal.

 

Long dry

In the last few months, there has been no rain in many areas of Nepal and North India. Because of which the forests have dried up.

 

Shekhar Pathak says, "There has been no rain nor snow for many months. That is why the chestnut trees have started burning because the ground on which they are standing is very dry."

 

Another thing to worry about is that usually, the most fierce fire in the forests occurs in May. Now is the time yet to come, in such a situation that this fire of the forests may take a more frightening form.

 

Scientists say that even though climate change cannot be directly attributed to the fire in the forests in this region, but the drought has increased here.

 

At the same time, officials in Nepal and India say that in many places the fire has erupted due to the burning of crops in the nearby fields.

 

But experts say that this problem is not limited to just weather and crops.

 

Vijendra Stranger, a natural resource management expert associated with Oxfam and working in Chhattisgarh, India, says, "Government policymakers think that the job of forests is to convert only carbon to oxygen, but they forget that forests are also on fire And it also causes carbon emissions. "

 

"In India, forest fires are not a priority issue right now and that is the reason why it is not usually discussed in Parliament either."

 

Is a wildfire not a natural disaster?

 

The National Disaster Management Authority of India (NDMA) has not considered forest fires as a natural threat.

 

The NDMA has placed only cyclones, tsunamis, heat waves, landslides, floods, and plots in this category on its website.

 

In 2019, an analysis of the Forest Survey of India had revealed that 36 percent of the forests in the country are at risk of fire, and in one-third of them this risk is very high.

 

Krishna Vats, a member of the NDMA, says, "We have not placed wildfires in India on the list of natural hazards because most of the forest fires in India are deliberately planted due to agriculture-related reasons and in this case, it is a man-made The danger is there. "

 

He says, "But we accept that forest fires are becoming a serious threat and that is why we are working together with forest departments and other agencies of all the provinces to tackle them." "

 

Shortcomings of fire service

 

Based on the report of the Standing Fire Advisory Committee, NDMA has already exposed the serious flaws in the fire services of the country.

 

The committee, in its investigation, had found that 80 percent of the vehicles involved in fire fighting in the country have flaws while the number of firefighters in the country is 96 percent less than what is required.

 

"We have made a lot of improvements since that report, but we also know that a lot more is yet to be done," says DK Dhami, senior officer and adviser to the Directorate General of Fire Services, India.

 

"At that time we had close to 55 thousand fire fighting personnel. Now we have more than 75 thousand employees."

 

The government has also increased the budget for fire fighting as compared to earlier. Now the government has made a provision of about 50 billion rupees for the states from this year to 2026. This is five times more than the earlier provisions.

 

But experts say that this has not helped any real help in fighting forest fires at the grassroots level.

 

Anirudh Jadeja, an environmental activist from the Kumaon district, says, "The forest fire is becoming more severe than before but there seems to be no preparation for administration."

 

"Our forests are very large and the number of employees of the forest department is very less. Whenever there is a big fire, they are not able to do anything special."

 

Nepal's forest experts also say the same.

 

Bharti Pathak, president of the Federation of Community Forestry Users of Nepal, says, "We hear that Nepal gets millions of dollars from abroad in the name of the environment but nothing is spent to extinguish the forest fires." "

 

"Our community forestry work has received worldwide acclaim, but now the fire in the forests can end the work done."

 

At the same time, Nepal officials say that they are doing whatever they can to extinguish the fire.

 

Prakash Lamsal, the spokesperson of Nepal's forest ministry, says, "We are doing whatever we can with our limited resources, but the fire is in areas where it is difficult to reach. The peaks of the ups and downs, the deliberate fire of people and Difficulties are occurring because of the dry season. "

 

"We have all seen how much trouble there is in extinguishing forest fires even in developed countries."

 

Help local communities

 

Experts say that people living in the forests can play an important role in extinguishing the fire, but this is not happening.

 

Pathak says, "The reason for this is that there is a lack of trust between the people living in the forests and the forest departments."

 

"Many communities living in the forests want their rights to be protected over the forests. Because of this, there is an atmosphere of tension between them and the forest department, due to which there is a lack of trust. This is why the forest fires The fight against it is also affected.

 

At the same time, the forest officials say that they protect the forests under the law.

 

Says Stranger, "The administration usually holds local communities responsible for forest fires, but in fact, it can also work with them to control militant fires."